


Heaven Bent

by tollofthebells



Series: Ellinor Trevelyan [2]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, Caretaking, Depression, Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser DLC, Established Relationship, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Lyrium Withdrawal, Near Death Experiences, Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser DLC, Pre-Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser DLC, Recovery
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-10
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-17 15:27:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29968437
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tollofthebells/pseuds/tollofthebells
Summary: The sun is setting on the Inquisition as Ellinor Trevelyan knows it, and when the winds of change arrive, they will break those who cannot learn to bend with them.A sequel to the Inquisition-era ficA World Alonethat follows Ellinor Trevelyan and Cullen Rutherford before, during, and following the events of the Trespasser DLC.
Relationships: Cullen Rutherford/Female Rogue Trevelyan, Cullen Rutherford/Female Trevelyan, Female Inquisitor/Cullen Rutherford
Series: Ellinor Trevelyan [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1226219
Comments: 6
Kudos: 18





	Heaven Bent

**Author's Note:**

> This is a direct sequel to _[A World Alone](https://archiveofourown.org/works/16370282/chapters/38311028)_ , which spans the events of the base game, so I do recommend reading that first before jumping right in here (as this takes place around the Trespasser DLC and after Ellinor and Cullen have established and solidified their relationship).

“Legs are gonna be strong as _fuck_ after all this, Ellie,” Sera giggles in her ear. She’s been piggybacking on her for at least the last mile, her pony and Ellinor’s horse hitched behind Cassandra and Dorian and the rest of the Inquisition party who travel with them as they head north from the Frostback Basin for what feels like the hundredth time.

 _For the last time_ , Ellinor thinks, a smile coming to her lips.

The air in the mountains is so cold that it almost hurts her nose, her throat, her lungs just to breathe it in—and with Sera on her back for the final leg of the hike, she’s all but hyperventilating—but she wouldn’t trade it for the world. After all, _we’re almost home_.

“Strong as fuck if I can still walk on them by the time we get there,” she mutters under her breath, and Sera snorts.

“Be there in just a bit, yeah? You’re doing great.”

Promptly, Ellinor lets go and leans back, dropping Sera in the muddied snow. “If we’re so close, I say it’s your turn to carry me.”

Sera scowls, scrambling to her feet and brushing the snow off her legs and the seat of her pants. “I—”

“We’ll be there in just a bit, right?” Ellinor echoes with a sly grin. “Turn around.”

Begrudgingly, Sera crouches down a bit, and Ellinor can see Cassandra frown at their antics from a distance before she hops onto Sera’s back.

“Hurry, hurry!” The two of the burst out laughing as Sera breaks into a half-jog, gaining distance from the rest of the party as they climb the final stretch of of the trail to Skyhold. She holds on tight when the bridge over the mountain chasm comes into view.

Sera snorts, breathing heavily. “There’s Cully.”

She’s right. He’s expecting them. _Of course he is_ , she’d sent him a raven in the morning as they’d broken camp with news of their impending homecoming. And here he is, standing straight, at attention, _you silly man_ , so formal.

 _It’s been weeks this time_ , she knows. She’s missed him.

“Gonna sprint to the finish,” Sera breathes, picking up her pace.

Ellinor squeals. “No—it’s—Sera, it’s _icy_ —”

But it’s too late. As they cross the bridge, they hit the ice, skidding and wobbling and _laughing_ as their efforts at maintaining any semblance of balance fail them and they topple onto the cold stone.

“Ellinor!”

“ _Fuck_ ,” she whispers, catching her breath, rolling her shoulders against the hard bridge beneath her back.

“Ellinor! It’s—Maker’s breath—there’s _ice_ —are you all r—”

“Doing fine, thanks for asking,” Sera grumbles beside her as Cullen crouches down at her side. She stands, brushing herself off for the second time in a matter of minutes, and sticks her tongue out at him. “See you, Ellie”

“Lin—”

“I’m _fine_ , Cullen,” she assures him, but she accepts his outstretched hand anyway, only pausing for a moment to mourn the fact that it’s still gloved, the fact that she’s missed the touch of his skin, though she won’t admit it now as the rest of their party begins to approach the bridge. She lets him pull her to her feet again, smiling unabashedly even amid the dull pain of the bruise undoubtedly forming at her tailbone.

“Dare I ask whose idea it was to—”

“Sera’s first,” she interrupts him, adding a quick _I’m fine_ under her breath that he pointedly ignores, his eyes looking up and down her for any sign of injury. “And then mine. She’s the one who decided to run right onto the ice, though—”

“Of course she was.” He frowns, though it’s short-lived: once she cups his chin in the palm of her hand, he relents, honey eyes softening at her touch.

“I’m fine,” she repeats. _A promise_. “We’re just glad to be out of the Basin. And excited to come home. I think that’s cause enough for some fun, don’t you?”

His brow furrows again, and she stands on her tiptoes to kiss his nose. “Not when I can practically envision your _fun_ ending in broken bones or _worse_ — _hm_.” He sighs into her kiss then, worries forgotten, _at least for now_ , and she can feel his arms tighten around her.

“I missed you.”

He smiles at last when she pulls away, rests back on the flat of her boots. But he won’t let go. Not so soon. _Not yet_. “Maker, Lin, I’ve missed you too.”

Their next kiss is too soon interrupted by the arrival of the next of their party: Dorian and Cassandra, along with the mounts and the small battalion of Inquisition soldiers who’d departed the Basin with them.

“I don’t suppose you missed us as well, Cullen?” Dorian asks with a feigned but convincing pout.

He ponders, not for a moment letting go of her. “Hm. No, not quite as much.”

“Likewise,” Dorian scowls, and it makes Cullen laugh—a warm sound. One her heart had longed for during the time she’d been away.

She grasps his arm a little tighter.

“Maybe not me, but certainly the comforts of Skyhold?” Cullen prompts, and Dorian scoffs.

“Missing the riches of our humble castle is one thing. Missing its grumpy inhabitants is entirely another.” He twists his staff in his hand, looking back and forth between the two of them and _tutting_ at the way Cullen still has one arm all but wrapped around her. “At least Ellinor will stop being a wistful romantic now that we’re all back. How you two have gone from being insufferable with each other to insufferable _without_ each other is beyond me and yet I keep having to deal with it. I deserve better.”

With that, he abandons them for the inner walls of the keep.

“Cullen,” Cassandra greets. Short, curt. Familiar.

He smiles. “Cassandra. I see you’ve shepherded everyone home in one piece.”

The Seeker snorts at that, shaking her head, although she shares a _look_ with Ellinor.

It’s one she shrugs off easily. She’d sustained a hit from a dragon in the Basin. _Nothing serious_ , though Cullen will certainly beg to differ, which is no doubt _why_ Cassandra looks pointedly to her. But _enough, I will deal with it later._

“She always does,” Ellinor says warmly, flashing her a reassuring smile, _don’t worry about it._

Cassandra shrugs. “Where are Josephine and Leliana?”

“Inside. Meeting with Vivienne.” He lowers his voice as the Inquisition soldiers continue to pass them by. “The Grand Cathedral has written her regarding—”

“Yes,” Cassandra interrupts him, understanding immediately. Her eyes narrow as she thinks for a moment and then nods, slowly at first, then firm. “Yes, good. Very good. We will speak of this later.” She nods again, this time short, to them both before making her way to the fortress.

“Better a Circle mage than a Seeker on the sunburst throne,” Ellinor says quietly, and Cullen pauses for a moment.

“You may be right.” He chooses his words carefully, _calmer than he ever would before_. “But…” He shakes his head. “Well, at any rate, I truly don’t think Cassandra would have had any desire for it. Though she would have accepted, if…”

Ellinor clears her throat. “Obligation and desire to lead are not the same things.” It’s all she can do not to add _I would know_ , though the time for such a conversation has long since passed, and anyway _I did accept the task I was burdened with, in the end_ but the time has passed. And he knows.

“I know,” he murmurs, clasping her hand in his, watching beside her as the soldiers of their Inquisition, decorated now with victories far beyond anyone’s initial expectations, fall in line, into the keep, into the _riches of our humble castle_ as Dorian had said, and she wonders how many more are still to return, and how many times they are still to depart again.

* * *

It’s not until later—after convening in the war room and settling all accounts of what had transpired in the Frostback Basin, after a proper bath, after dinner, after drinks in the tavern and catching up with those of her inner circle who had not accompanied her on her most recent outing—that they finally retire to their quarters.

It’s been weeks.

It hasn’t always felt so long, not when there’d been so much to do in the Basin with Stone-Bear Hold and Ameridan and everything had gone so fast, each day beginning with a long to-do list and ending with seemingly more items than she’d started off with. _No_ , the days passed quickly. The nights, less so.

Though a night in a bed at all is leagues better than a night spent in the cot of her tent, a night in _her_ bed, with _Cullen_ , is a luxury comparable to none other.

“I could sleep for _days_ , I think,” she tells him as he helps her from the dress she’d changed into earlier. Beneath it, she’s without a doubt sporting a bruise from the ice that morning and yet another new scar on her back, neither of which will please him to see, but _it’s been too long_ , and she won’t stop him. Not when he’s already begun. Not when she’s ached to feel the touch of his hands since the day she’d departed from Skyhold.

He takes his time with the lacing on her back, fingers better suited for gripping a sword and a shield now working with diligent and deliberate care. He is nothing if not patient, and above all else, he’s learned that patience is rewarded.

He chuckles at her words. “I’ve already warned Leliana and Josephine that you won’t be available until past noon tomorrow. At least.”

“You know me too well.”

“I should hope I do.”

She grins.

He reaches the last of the lacing and pats her gently on the small of her back.

“All done?” she asks.

“Mhm. I believe you can carry on from here. Unless you’d prefer me to continue.”

“And what if I did?”

He touches her gently on the shoulder, pulls, turns her to face him. “Then I would say,” he murmurs, eyes warm, longing, “‘as my lady commands.’”

She tries not to smile. To blush. But she’s missed him too much, and for too long, and the flush of mead from their night in the tavern still blooms in her cheeks and her ears and brings a grin too easily and too quickly to her face.

“May I?” he asks her, and she nods.

Again, he takes his time. The tips of his fingers are warm on her bare shoulders when he pushes the sleeves of her dress from them, sending goosebumps down her arms as he chases the cloth toward the floor.

“ _Ellinor_ ,” he breathes, his fingers tensing on her wrists as the dress gathers in a pool around her ankles.

She swallows.

 _Well, he’s seen it then_.

“You couldn’t have thought that fall on the ice wouldn’t leave a bruise.”

“You know that’s not what I’m talking about,” he says stiffly.

They’ve had this conversation before. Many times. _Too many times_.

Feeling his eyes linger on her for a moment too long, she turns around sharply, crosses her arms over her chest, cold without her dress. “It’s all part of the job,” she says. Cooler than she means.

He frowns. “I understand that. But is it too much to ask that you take the bare minimum of protections for yourself? So that we don’t have to discuss this every time when you return with a new injury? So that I don’t _lose_ you?”

“ _Cullen_ ,” she presses, leaving him for her wardrobe instead, pulling a clean nightgown from her drawer. “I think now with the business in the Basin finished, the number of dangers I face in which you may lose me is about to drop significantly.”

He sighs. She glances back at him as she fastens the back of her nightgown and he begins to undress himself, the gentle softness of their reunion on hold as he ponders the newest wound upon her.

“Dare I ask what it was this time?” he mutters, pulling his shirt over his head.

“Take a guess.”

“Don’t say another dragon.”

“Fine. I won’t say.”

She almost pulls the pins from her hair, but _no_ , she won’t deny him his favorite bedtime ritual. Not even as he admonishes her for her lack of safety practices in battle. Instead, she climbs into their bed, making sure to cross her arms again once she does, and watches him as he finishes changing.

“No more dragons,” he says with a layer of exhaustion when he’s done, coming to the bedside and pulling the covers back to get in after her. “Please.”

She purses her lips. “I feel like you’re under the impression that I _seek out_ danger to get myself into. Or that I enjoy it, somehow.”

“Well—”

“I assure you nothing could be further from the truth, Cullen,” she sighs. “That the last thing I’d have wanted would be any reason to stay in the Basin longer than we had to. I can promise you that.”

He _hums_ thoughtfully, pauses, but in the end it seems her words are sufficient for him. He brings his fingers to her hair, running them over the soft braids and jeweled pins Josephine had given her once, seemingly so long ago, to wear to the Winter Palace.

And so they resume.

He undoes her hair as carefully as he had her dress, making sure not to pull or tangle as he works. _His fingers are steady today_ , she thinks, and for that, she’s glad. _He’s doing well._ “So let’s write off tomorrow,” she muses, and he hums again: _mhm_. “No meetings, please. Only sleeping. And maybe napping.”

“First,” he says, a couple of her pins between his teeth—she can hear it even as he sits behind her, out of view. “‘Sleeping’ and ‘napping’ are all the same if you do it all day long. And second, you may need to take up the ‘no meetings’ idea with Josephine. Not me. I can save you from morning meetings, but beyond that, you may be on your own.”

She ignores him. “And then _after_ tomorrow—” she continues, and he laughs. “I’d like to visit your family, I think.”

Immediately, his fingers go still in her hair, and she can hear his breath catch in his throat.

_Cullen._

“Um.” He clears his throat. “Of course. Although. You know, Lyssa wrote while you were away. I’m sure she and Avery would like to see you too, and—”

“Cullen.”

“The letter’s right on your desk, I can get it if you like, I didn’t read it myself but I’m sure they miss you—”

“We just visited Val Royeaux before everything happened in the Frostback Basin. If you’re apprehensive about seeing your siblings, you can just say so.”

At once, he finishes with her hair, and she turns around sharply to face him. “It’s not that,” he insists, placing the last of her pins on the bedside table.

“You weren’t so nervous when we’d spoken of it last time.” She looks into his eyes, finding only fears, uncertainty there. “Be honest with me.”

He shakes his head slowly, opening his mouth twice to speak before he finally does. “It’s different. When there’s a-an actual _plan_ , in place, it’s...it’s…”

“More real?”

He nods, and her heart aches for him.

“Oh, darling,” she murmurs, reaching out to cup his cheek. She brushes her thumb against the light bit of stubble on his jaw, feeling his teeth clench when she does. “I can only imagine—”

“It’s fine—”

“No. It’s been so long since you’ve seen them. I could have—I should have been more sensitive to that. I’m sorry.”

“I know you want to meet them,” he murmurs, and she leans into him, lays her head on his chest, stretches an arm over his middle. “And I do, um. Want to see them again. But—”

“It’s been so long,” she repeats. “I know.” She sighs thoughtfully, tapping her fingers on his belly, against the cotton fabric of his nightshirt. He’s softer in places, _healthier_ , here and in his face and in his hands and in his arms, a hard-fought victory from all the weight he’d lost in the year before, all the sickness and withdrawal that had eaten at him mercilessly for far too long before he’d started to improve.

 _He’s doing so much better than he was_ , she knows. _In so many ways. And yet…_

“I’ll be with you.”

“Mhm.” His voice rumbles in his chest below her ear, and she hugs him a little tighter.

“You won’t be alone, Cullen,” she clarifies. “I know you’re worried. I know how long it’s been. But I promise, they will be so, so happy to see you. Mia especially, if I know anything from the letters she’s sent.” She can feel his lips against her hair, a soft kiss, a silent _thank you._

“But I’ve changed so much.”

She hates the uncertainty in his voice. “You have,” she agrees, “and I love the person you are now. Please don’t let yourself believe that they won’t.”

“I love the person you are, too.” He kisses her forehead.

“Don’t change the subject.”

“Hm,” he murmurs, wrapping and arm around her shoulders, kissing her forehead again, her nose, her cheek, tilting her chin up to kiss her lips. “Too late.”

* * *

_Mia,_

_~~Ellinor was~~ Ellinor and I were thinking it may be nice to come and visit you all, if it’s not a bad time. I know I had brought it up a couple of months ago, but the Inquisition has been unexpectedly busy since then. Of course, if it’s not a good time to receive us, that’s completely fine. We can always reschedule for another time. No hard feelings at all; we would understand. We don’t want to impose. Please let me know either way and we can make the necessary traveling arrangements._

_Love,_

_Cullen_

* * *

_Dear Cullen,_

_Don’t be daft! It’s not a bad time to come. I’ve only been nagging you incessantly to bring Ellinor for a visit for nearly the past_ year _! And here you are, trying to avoid me. Again._

_In all seriousness, Cullen, we miss you. Terribly. I’ve been praying to see you again since you left home almost twenty years ago. So please, don’t delay any more. I’ll make you whatever you like for suppers, and shortbread cookies too, if they’re still you’re favorite._

_Love always,_

_Mia_


End file.
